Closer Examination

The Bitspower Premium Summit M CPU water block is a hefty little thing, primarily as a result of the full copper construction employed for the top and cold plate alike. These are then plated for aesthetics, which in this black metal edition has a black plating with the Bitspower dragon logo etched into the left side as seen above. This may well be a divisive look, as I suspect many would rather have this logo not be so prominent. If it is any consolation to those, the logo does not put itself front and center above all else as it does meld in with the background better than promotional images may suggest. The design of the block is reminiscent of the older Summit EF-X, especially with the Intel mounting bracket that comes installed by default, but adopts a more hexagonal exterior shape instead.

On top are two BSP G1/4" threaded ports, and there are no arrows or signs to indicate any preferred inlet or outlet ports. Ideally, you would want the port on the right as seen from the front, as the inlet port, but you won't lose out on much performance if you have to swap things around for a better plumbing layout. The ports are very well threaded here, and from the side, we see the translucent middle piece for the integrated lighting to shine through, as well as the LED cable that terminates in a 3-pin 5 V connector to plug into compatible addressable motherboard dRGB LED headers. This means you do not need a separate controller as an add-on purchase, which some brands, including CORSAIR, end up doing.


Flipping the block over, we see a plastic cover to help protect the cold plate during transit, which also has a warning to remove it prior to installation. The cold plate is nickel-plated copper and has been given a mirror finish. The two ports are spaced such that all but the largest of fittings used in this market will fit without issues. The recent trend is to go with smaller tubing and fittings compared to even a few years ago (think 12–14 mm vs. 16–19 mm before), and those will work just fine here.


As per usual, disassembly was done after all testing was complete, and the provided hex tool works well in removing the four screws on the bottom that hold the block together. There are four large pieces that make up the Bitspower Premium Summit M block, including the top and cold plate we saw before. The top houses a flexible Bitspower-branded digital RGB LED strip that goes around a recess in the top, with the LEDs shining inward as seen above. Do not attempt to power these LEDs off a 4-pin, 12 V LED header since it can kill the LEDs and/or the header, and doing so is quite hard, too, given the connector has a blocked-off middle pin anyway.


There is an translucent inner piece that helps with the lighting, but is also a molded plastic piece that helps direct coolant flow through a jetplate slit and around via two channels for the way out. The cold plate has a rubber O-ring to ensure no coolant leaks, and 300 µm machined microfins and channels that add to the overall surface area of heat transfer to help get heat from the CPU to the coolant. This by itself is not technically unique, with competitors having hit a higher number of thinner fins in the same area, but there is always a trade-off between coolant flow restriction and heat transfer, the latter of which also plateaus really quickly. So having more fins is not always a guarantee of better thermal performance, either.